


We're A Family, After All

by ahyperactivehero (ahyperactiverhero)



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: AU where Five tries to stop Luther, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Good Sister Vanya Hargreeves, Hurt! Five, Hurt/Comfort, No Incest, No shipping, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Vanya Hargreeves Needs A Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 04:12:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18242144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahyperactiverhero/pseuds/ahyperactivehero
Summary: Five is there when Luther tries to lock Vanya up, and there's no way he can leave his sister in that cage. Too bad he's a bit too injured to actually be much help.





	We're A Family, After All

Klaus woke him up. 

His brother was standing over him, gently shaking him awake. His eyes looked down at the place where Five knew his stitches were, before looking back up at his face. There was something wrong with his face, a dark shadow hanging over him. Maybe it was because he was in the process of getting sober and the withdraw was kicking his ass or maybe it was because of whatever he could see that Five couldn’t. 

Either way, Five didn’t like it.

“There’s a family meeting,” Klaus said, his voice low. “It’s about Vanya.”

Five sat up, far quicker than he had intended to. He could feel his stitches pull in his wound, but he ignored them. The last thing he could remember was looking for Vanya after finding Harold Jenkins’s dead body. They’d come back to the mansion to look for her, and he’d been so tired after losing so much blood the day before that he’d laid down, just for a minute…

“Is she okay?” he asked. He pictured Harold Jenkins’s dead body, all of the knives sticking out like some sort of human pincushion. It took a lot of rage to do that to a human being, and with their sister still missing, who knew who might’ve found her.

Klaus looked away, towards the corner. He paused for a second before nodding. “You should probably just come with us.”

Five’s brow wrinkled at the seriousness in his brother’s voice. He’d never known Klaus to be serious, not even mentioning the apocalypse was enough to break through his brother’s blasé attitude. Something terrible must’ve happened for him to be this serious about it.

He followed Klaus’s quick steps, his side aching the entire way. Blood was slowly beginning to trickle from his wound, his stitches likely broken from the speed of his movements. That was something that he was going to have to deal with later, hopefully after he figured out whatever was going on with Vanya that was making Klaus act so out of character.

The two of them rode an elevator down, down, down, until it eventually came to a stop several floors below the surface. Funny, he didn’t remember this part of the mansion. And here he thought that he’d explored every part of their childhood home before he’d jumped to the future.

Diego was yelling at Luther, his voice echoing against the empty concrete walls. Luther was yelling back, his voice far louder and more intense than Diego’s. 

But Five couldn’t hear them. All he could focus on was who they were yelling about.

Vanya was inside the room next to them, banging on the glass window of the door. She’d paused when Klaus and Five had entered, taking them in. The fear in her eyes was obvious, and she began banging on it again when she realized they were both looking at her. Her face was red from screaming and crying, her small fists slamming against the window. Occasionally, she’d bump her head against it, as if that might somehow convince them to open it.

“Holy shit,” Klaus muttered under his breath.

“What the hell is going on here?” Five asked, stepping fully into the room. He forced his eyes to look away from his sister and towards his brothers, who seemed to be seconds away from pounding each other into paste.

“Vanya has powers,” Luther said, like that explained everything.

“What?” Five asked. 

Diego continued shouting. “Man, so what!? We’ve all got powers, and you don’t see anyone locking us up like an _animal_.” He spit out the last word, clearly targeting Luther with it.

“She’s dangerous!” Luther shouted.

“Vanya? Dangerous?” Klaus asked. He let out an unamused, disbelieving chuckle. 

“There’s no way,” Five agreed, his eyes trained on his sister. She was staring at him, begging him to get her out of there.

“It’s true,” Luther said. “Pogo told me. She has powers and Dad hid them from us because he believed that she was too dangerous.” He pointed at her. “She’s the one responsible for Harold Jenkins’s death, _and_ she’s the one who hurt Allison.”

“ _Vanya?_ ” Klaus repeated. “She’s the one who used to cry when we stepped on ants, there’s no way she could ever hurt Allison.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Diego said. “She’s our sister, and she needs our help. We’ve got to get her out of there.”

Diego barely made it a step before Luther grabbed his arm. He jerked his arm forward, but Luther gripped his arm and yanked him, Diego’s feet coming up off of the ground as he was forced back.

Diego tried to reach for one of his knives, but Luther wrapped him in a bear hug, preventing him from doing anything. With Diego all wrapped up, Klaus took it upon himself to charge at the door.

Luther, seeing what exactly was going to happen, tossed Diego and ran for Klaus. It only took two quick strides before he’d removed Klaus from the door as well.

“You can’t let her out!” Luther said. “She’s dangerous!” He turned towards Five, his eyes begging for him to side with him, to vouch for him. “Five! You understand, right? She’s gotta be the one responsible for the apocalypse.”

He couldn’t help but think back to the apocalypse, the way the sun was scorching hot with fires still burning around him. Everything was in ruins, rubble and debris laying everywhere he’d turned.

He’d seen his fair share of bodies during the apocalypse. After all, when seven billion people die there tend to be an awful lot of bodies laying around. But he could still remember the first bodies he’d seen, the bodies that he didn’t exactly recognize at first until he’d noticed Klaus’s tattoo. Then it had been obvious, of course it was, the location of their bodies, the fact that all of them were the same gender and race as his brothers and sister, just aged up about two decades. 

The first dead bodies he’d seen had been the bodies of his siblings.

But he’d never found Vanya’s body. Or Ben’s body, which had confused him the most. Vanya made sense, she’d never been a fighter, had had no reason being there at the fight of their lives. But Ben? There was no way he would’ve ever missed it, even if he did hate fighting.

Of course, he’d realized later why he’d never found Ben’s body. Vanya’s book had simultaneously made that obvious and taken away the last hope he’d had that one of his siblings might’ve made it through the apocalypse, too. 

But it did makes sense. Vanya had to be the one responsible for everything. Harold Jenkins, Allison, the end of the world…

But it didn’t have to happen that way. Nothing was set in stone, not yet.

She was staring at him, tears flowing down her cheeks. Her hand weakly pawed at the door, like she had expelled all of her energy earlier.

He was probably her only hope at the moment.

“You can’t do this,” Five said. He inched towards the door, his side burning. “This isn’t going to help anything.”

“It’s not permanent,” Luther said, his voice wavering. “It’s just until we can figure out what to do. Until something better comes along.”

“Don’t you get it?!” Five asked. Diego was slowly climbing to his feet, holding his arm in a way that made it clear it had been hurt in the landing. He slowly started to make his way towards the door again, his eyes briefly meeting Five’s. Five shook his head, knowing that that would only end in him getting tossed across the room again. “There is nothing better! We don’t have time to try and figure out another way.” The images of fires and ash flashed before his eyes. “You’ve got to let her go.”

Luther opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the sound of the door turning.

Instantly, he whipped around, immediately noticing Diego. He dropped Klaus and charged towards him again, the image of a raging bull coming to Five’s mind. 

It didn’t take long for the shouting to begin again. Diego and Luther were brawling, both of them yelling insults and taking turns beating the shit out of the other. Klaus, seemed to be in the middle of a mental breakdown, his hands clasped over his ears like he was trying to drown out more than just his brothers. 

A hand came to rest on Five’s shoulder. He spun around, his defenses high and ready to take down whoever had managed to sneak up on him. There, behind him, was Allison, a bandage wrapped over her throat and tears in her eyes. No one else, aside from Vanya, seemed to have realized that she was there.

“What are you doing here?” Five asked. “You should be resting.”

She gave him a critical look, one that was clearly calling him out for being a hypocrite. As if he hadn’t just been bedridden with a shrapnel wound.

She scribbled into the notebook in her hand. _“My fault,”_ she wrote.

He squinted at the words. “So Vanya did do it.”

She pointed at the words again, this time with more force. Five nodded. He didn’t know the whole story, not yet, but he believed her when she said that it was her fault. Allison had never taken responsibility for anything bad when they were kids, even when it had been her fault. The fact that she was taking it now, after everything that had happened, led him to believe that she was actually telling the truth.

_“Help her,”_ she wrote.

Five read and reread her words. Help her? Help her how? He didn’t know anything about what kind of powers she had or what would be the best course of action here. He’d come back in time to stop the apocalypse against some one-eyed man, not his sister who’d always been the nicest one of them all, who’d left sandwiches out and a light on for him after he disappeared. What was he supposed to do with _any_ of that?

“I don’t know how,” Five said, honestly. 

Allison huffed, her foot lightly stomping in frustration. “ _Get her out of there.”_

That was easier said than done, if he were being honest. Especially when he wasn’t sure if that was the correct choice to make. If her powers were actually as dangerous as Dad seemed to think they were, and she was as unstable as Luther seemed to believe, it might be best to leave her in there, despite what he had been saying earlier.

“There’s no way he’s going to let any of us open up that door,” he said.

His sister rolled her eyes at him. _“Jump.”_

He nodded, having already planned on it. “I’ll jump in there and get her out.” He looked at Allison, noting how tense and also weak she seemed. “I’ll take her away from here. I’ll let you know when I find someplace safe so you can meet us there.” He looked over his sister, who had changed so much in the years since he’d been gone. “I think she’ll listen to you.”

She nodded, her eyes filled with determination. That settled it for him.

He closed his eyes and reached for the space around him, stepping forward like he always did into one of his jumps.

Immediately, he could tell that something was wrong.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Vanya screamed. “Please, let me out of here! Allison! I’m sorry!” Her fists were still beating against the door, but there was nothing else. No other sound could reach into the room, and any sound other than Vanya was quickly absorbed by the walls. 

“Vanya,” Five said, stepping towards his sister. She hadn’t even noticed he was in there, hadn’t even noticed he’d disappeared outside.

He reached a hand out for her, completely intending to pull her away from the door and into a hug, but he froze. Human contact was not something he’d had a lot of in the last few decades and it was a hard thing to accept now.

She whirled around, her teary eyes landing on Five. The look on her face was somewhere in between ecstatic and terrified. Like she couldn’t believe he was actually there and also couldn’t trust what he was there to do.

“Vanya,” he repeated. He took another step forward and this time froze for a different reason. The world was tilting, the dim room darkening even further until he could only see a pinprick of what was in front of him. Shaking legs suddenly refused to hold him up any further and he collapsed forward.

“Five?” she asked, reaching out and catching her brother in her arms. He pulled her down with him, both of them landing roughly on the ground. She sat up, pulling him into her lap. There was a spot of red on his side, blood dripping down through the fabric and onto her lap.

“Five!” she screamed, the blood reminding her of Allison’s blood that had covered her hands only a few hours ago. How many more of her siblings would she see hurt before this was through?

“Five, what happened to you?” she asked, shaking him. He groaned, the shaking clearly jostling his wound around. He reached up and grabbed onto her hand, his hands glowing blue in a way that told her he was trying to jump. Was he trying to jump away from her or with her? “What’s wrong? When did this happen?” 

Her face swam in front of him. It was so hard for him to focus on her, the blood loss clearly already affecting him. He’d suffered through far worse during the apocalypse, but that had been a different body, an older body. This one had never had to deal with anything like that and it showed.

His eyes slipped closed. If he could focus for just a moment he could jump with her. He could get them out of here, out of the room that was simultaneously too loud and too quiet. If he could just focus.

“Hey, no, come on. Open your eyes,” she said. Her voice was low and scratchy, damaged from all of the screaming and crying she had been doing. “Open them up, come on.”

He did as he was asked, staring up at her face. She gave him a watery smile and brushed the hair back from his face. He wanted to tell her that he wasn’t a little kid anymore, that he didn’t need someone to do all of this for him, but he didn’t. Instead he laid there, in his sister’s arms and listened to her hum him a song that he hadn’t heard her play in years.

Slowly, he tilted his head, taking in the chaos that was going on outside the room. Allison was gesturing wildly to her notebook with Luther shaking his head while holding Diego and Klaus back with separate arms. _What idiots_ , he thought before letting his eyes close again.

“Hey, Five?” Vanya asked, tapping his cheek gently. “No, come on, wake up.” She tapped harder, almost slapping him, but he still didn’t open his eyes. “No, no, no, no, no.”

Gently, she moved him so that he was laying flat on the floor. Blood was still leaking from his wound, the red stain growing larger and larger. Her pants leg was stuck to her skin with his blood from where he had been laying against her. It was just like Allison all over again, her blood caking under her naisl, soaking into her clothes until they were tacky and clinging to her skin.

“No! No, no, no, no!” she screamed. She turned towards the door, banging on it again. Her hands left bloody tracks on there this time, clearly marking where her hand touched. “You’ve got to help him! Let us out!”

Allison’s eyes widened at the sight. She’d been half watching Vanya while arguing with Luther, expecting to see the familiar flash of blue before she and Five disappeared, but it never came. Instead, her sister’s hands were covered in blood, and streaking the window like a child who’s gotten into the finger paints.

“Oh God,” she mouthed. 

Luther turned around, his eyes also widened at the sight. Klaus and Diego froze, neither one of them knowing what to do.

“Please!” she begged. They could leave her in here for all she cared, but they couldn’t leave Five. He would die without proper medical attention, and she had nothing in there to stop the blood. “Help him!”

Luther dropped Diego and Klaus, but neither one of them moved towards the door. It was like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

Allison was writing something in her notebook, something that Vanya couldn’t see. Whatever it was seemed to have started a whole other argument because all of her siblings were suddenly moving again, clearly arguing with each other.

She sank back down to the floor, pulling Five towards her. It was hard to remember that he was supposedly fifty-something years old when she looked at him. He looked just like he did the day he went missing, right down to the school boy outfit. What would she have done if he had just reappeared the same day he’d disappeared? What would be different?

“They’re not going to open the door,” a voice said. She froze, listening for the voice again. It was too quiet in the room, her breathing and Five’s wheezing sounding like gunshots in the silence. 

“What?” she asked, looking around. There was no one else in the room, no one but Five, but she was still sure she’d heard a voice.

“He’s going to die because they’re scared of you.” 

“No, he’s not,” she said. They wouldn’t do that, of course they would help him. They were siblings after all. 

“Yes, he is,” the child’s voice, _Vanya’s_ voice, said in a matter of fact tone. “You think they care? They locked you in a cage and threw away the key, just like Dad did. They won’t help him.”

“Shut up,” Vanya said. “They’re gonna open the door. They’re gonna help him. They _have_ to.”

“V-Vanya?” Five muttered. His voice was weak, cracking in the middle of her name. “Vanya?” 

“You could open the door,” the girl’s voice suggested. “That’s the only way he’s going to get help.”

“Stop it!” Vanya yelled. “Stop it, stop it, stop it!”

Five’s hand weakly reached up until it was holding on to hers again. His hand glowed blue and the air fizzled around them, the smell of burning ozone reaching her nose, but they didn’t jump. He didn’t seem to have enough energy to do that.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I-I tried to help.”

Tears were rolling down Vanya’s face all over again. Five’s arm fell away from her, the only thing stopping it from falling all the way to the floor was the fact that she was currently still grasping his hand.

“Five?” she asked. He didn’t move or respond. She pressed her finger to his neck, feeling for a pulse. It was there, weak and uneven, but it was there. 

She focused on it, trying to keep track of how many beats were there. Slowly, it became all she could focus on, the sound of her heart beating along with his. His was different, slower and weaker than hers, but she could tell when they would match up.

Power came from her like ripples on water, slow at first, but growing each time their heart beats synced up. All she had to do was focus on that one sound, let everything else, every other thought just leave and focus on that _one thing._

The door suddenly blew open. No, not just the door, the whole _wall_ came down, crashing and creaking as it slammed into the concrete floor. Pieces of cement fell from the ceiling where it had been knocked loose, but still Five didn’t respond.

She pulled him close to her, not even thinking about the blood anymore. She wasn’t going to let him go, not now. He was her _brother_ and he was hurt. Someone had hurt him, and they were going to pay for it.

“Oh, _fuck_ ,” a voice muttered quietly. Klaus. 

She turned her head, taking in her other siblings. They had gathered together away from the wall, Luther crouching protectively in front of them with Diego right beside him. Klaus and Allison were leaning around, staring at the damage that had been done.

“Vanya?” Diego asked. His voice was quiet, almost hesitant. He was staring at her like he didn’t know her, like he was _afraid_ of _her_.

_Good,_ the voice that sounded like her child-self said. _He should be._

“Five?” Klaus asked. His eyes were trained on the body of their brother laying in her arms. She could still feel his pulse under her fingers, but his lack of movement was what concerned her. Five was never one to stay at rest for very long.

There was no way she could carry Five. Despite the fact that he was almost two decades younger than her now, he was still taller than her by about an inch. But she needed to get him out of here, get him to Mom and see if she could help him.

If she couldn’t….

“He needs help,” she said. “He just started bleeding and I-I couldn’t stop it.”

Slowly, one by one her siblings stood up, staring at her like she was a wild animal that might strike out if they moved too fast.

“Please, help him,” she said. When none of them moved she screamed. “Now!”

There was another ripple that came forth, and her siblings ran towards her. She felt as though she should stop them, that they might hurt her, but she couldn’t do anything. She needed them if she was going to help Five.

“Here, I’ve got him,” Luther said, stepping close. 

Vanya wrapped Five up in her arms, glaring daggers at Luther. “No,” she said, her tone deadly. The pain from his ‘hug’ was still fresh in her mind, the way the air hadn’t been able to reach her lungs. There was no way he was coming anywhere near Five.

“Get away from us,” she spat. A wave a power came out, knocking Luther off of his feet.

Diego help his hands up in surrender, making sure that she could see he was putting one of his knives down on the ground. “I’ll carry him, okay?” he asked, his voice soft. “I won’t let anything happen to him.”

Diego had always been protective of them. It was in his nature to protect people, especially his siblings. There was no way he’d let anything happen to Five.

She nodded her head, her hold on Five loosening until Diego could step over the rubble to reach them. He slid his arm under Five’s back and knees, and lifted his smaller brother with ease. There was a slight grimace on his face, likely from the fact that he’d landed on his arm when Luther had thrown him.

Diego might have been carrying Five, but she wasn’t about to let him go. She kept her hand wrapped around his wrist, tracking his pulse. Klaus hovered nearby, looking torn between staying as far away from Vanya as possible and also wanting to comfort her.

Allison was the first one to approach Vanya. She stumbled over the rubble that had been the wall, her legs shaking and weak. Vanya watched as she approached, the words frozen in her throat. There was so much that she wanted to say to her, _I’m sorry, you were right, I love you, too,_ but none of them came. Instead she still absolutely still, waiting for whatever judgement her sister would pass down.

Instead of the countless things Vanya had expected her to do, Allison launched herself at Vanya, her arms coming up to wrap around her shoulders in a tight hug. She wanted to push her sister off, the feeling of Luther’s arms around her still a fresh pain and memory, but she didn’t. Instead, she released Five’s wrist and brought her arms up and around Allison.

That was when the words started to come. 

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I swear I didn’t mean to,” she murmured, a string of apologies falling from her lips. Allison, unable to answer her, simply brushed her hair as she held her tight.

Diego bolted from the room, hurrying Five to the help he desperately needed. Vanya watched as he ran, feeling like she should run after him.

Allison stepped back, noticing where she had been staring. She took her sister’s hand, and nodded towards the door, telling her without words to come on.

Klaus hovered nearby, whispering under his breath. She couldn’t make out what he was saying, but he didn’t seem to be talking to them anyways.

Luther followed a few feet behind them. She tried to pretend he wasn’t there, but it was hard to do with a man his size. He didn’t seem like he was going to try and stop her, however, so she chose to just stick close with Allison. She didn’t need Allison’s protection, but maybe Allison needed hers?

Together, they arrived at the med-bay where Mom was already dressed up in a clear dress cover to prevent any blood from getting on her. She tutted at the state Five was in, brushing his hair back from his face the same way Vanya had done earlier. 

“Now, now, Five,” she said, her voice upbeat with a hint of scolding. She didn’t seem to be very concerned with the amount of blood he was losing. Then again, she was usually the only one to stay calm when any of them were hurt. “What did I tell you about trying to jump?” She paused like she might receive an answer from the injured boy. “That’s right, I told you to wait at least three days before trying to jump again.”

Vanya watched as their mom stitched her brother’s wound closed again. She made it look so easy, like there was nothing to it. But Vanya could still feel his blood on her fingers, the blood that had soaked into her pants. She knew that that wasn’t the case.

Her sister squeezed her hand, pulling her away from Five. She thought about protesting, about jerking her hands away from Allison and fighting to stay with Five, but she didn’t. Instead she allowed herself to be led away to the sink in the corner of the room where Allison helped to wash the blood from her hands.

The image of Leonard helping to wash the blood off of her hands in the bathtub came to her mind, which she quickly forced back down. This wasn’t the same thing. She hadn’t hurt Five, and she hadn’t meant to hurt Allison. If only she could make everyone else understand that.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Klaus asked, chewing on his thumbnail. He kept glancing towards the corner of the room and then back at Five.

“Of course he is,” Grace said softly. “He just needs lots of rest. Actual rest this time,” she said, gently bopping Five on the nose. 

“Thank God,” Diego muttered under his breath. His posture seemed to slump a little bit, the tension he’d been holding in finally releasing. He leaned against the bed Five was laying on, his head hanging low. This was the second time he’d had to drag his “younger” brother into the med-bay with blood coating his hands. He didn’t know if he could do it again, especially not so soon after doing the same for Allison.

“When’s he gonna wake up?” Klaus asked. 

Grace placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Soon. But first, rest. For all of you.” She smiled at each one of them, not even seeming to notice the tense atmosphere in the room. “Why don’t you guys just relax, and I’ll bake some cookies.”

She left the room before anyone else could say anything. It seemed like it was going to be a long, awkward wait as they gathered in the living room to wait for Five to wake up.

 

XXX

The first thing Five noticed was the smell of warm chocolate chip cookies, which seemed out of place with everything that he could remember. Why would there be chocolate chip cookies in Vanya’s cage or the apocalypse?

“Ooh, someone’s awake!” Grace’s voice drifted in, the smell of cookies growing stronger the closer and closer she got. “Who’s hungry?”

Gingerly, he sat up, taking extra care to not pull his stitches this time. She smiled her fake yet warm smile at him and placed a tray of cookies next to him. “I baked you all some cookies. It seemed like you guys could use them.”

He blinked in confusion, not fully understanding what she was meaning. What had happened to the others? Had he managed to jump them out of the sound proof room?

“Uh, where is everyone?” he asked, glancing around.

She smiled again and brushed his hair from his face. Faintly, he debated smacking her hand away, but he resisted it. It wouldn’t do any good to try and fight against her programmed motherly-nature. It never had.

“Oh, I made them go wait in the living room. No sense in them crowding around in here, keeping you up.” She reached over to the tray, picking up on of the cookies and handed it to him. “Here. Why don’t you go and meet up with your brothers and sisters. And no more jumping, Five. I mean it.” 

There was nothing threatening about the way she said it, not the way their father or perhaps any other parent might have said it, but he was inclined to listen to her this time. A small part of him felt guilty for making her redo the same work she had done the day before, while another part of him told him that that was what she was created for.

He chose to ignore both parts and thanked her, heading into the living room with a cookie in his hand.

The living room was silent, despite the five other occupants in it. Five couldn’t remember a time where all of them had been in the same place and were this quiet for this long.

Allison and Vanya were sitting on one couch, their hands clasped tightly together. Occasionally, one of them would move, taking up the notepad and writing a quick note to each other. Klaus was sprawled on one couch, his head turned away from the rest of the family, but Five could see that his mouth was moving about a mile a minute, although no words were actually coming out. Luther and Diego were sitting on the same couch, although they were sitting as far away as possible from each other, neither one of them wanting to even glance at the other.

“Five?” Vanya asked, her voice cracking in the silence of the room. Slowly, she unfolded herself from her spot next to Allison, standing and staring with uncertainty at him. 

He thought back to the ash and fire and destruction of the apocalypse, of how all of that had supposedly came from his sister. He pictured his other siblings dead, lying in the remains of their childhood home, never knowing exactly what had killed them.

He lifted his arms, opening them up to her. She stared at him, her hesitation clear on her face, before sprinting over to him. She threw her arms around his neck, the tears already beginning to flow again. Her words were a tumble of useless, meaningless words, but he didn’t care. He wrapped his own arms around her, pulling her close to him, closer than he’d allowed other human beings to get in years.

“Are you okay?” Five asked.

A harsh laughing sound broke free from her throat. “You’re the one who was bleeding to death, and you’re asking me if _I’m_ okay?”

It did sound a bit crazy, but hell, what part of their lives didn’t? He shrugged, not knowing what else to say.

Everyone else had stood up, gathering around the two of them like they wanted to do something, to say something, but none of them knew exactly what yet.

The old grandfather clock in the hall chimed out, twelve obnoxious times in a row.

He stiffened at the sound. Vanya clearly noticed, her grip loosening a bit so she could step back and look him in the eyes. “What’s wrong?” she asked, fresh worry covering her face.

“What day is it?” he asked, staring back at her.

Her brows furrowed, shaking her her head in a barely noticeable way. “I don’t understand-”

“Just tell me what the day is,” he said, his voice tired. He was so tired.

“April first,” Diego said from behind Vanya. “It’s April first.”

April first. The first full day of the apocalypse. 

He could feel his breath catch in his throat, the fear of losing everyone and everything all over again making him feel as though he was going to be sick. He couldn’t do that again. Even if he survived the initial wave of the apocalypse, he wouldn’t be strong enough to survive through it again.

As if sensing what he was thinking, Vanya pulled him close again, her arms wrapping tightly around him in a vice grip. His side twinged with pain, but none of his stitches came loose. 

Things had changed already, he tried to remind himself. Everything was likely already ash by this point in time on the last go around. Vanya was here though, holding him against her like both of their lives depended on it, like everyone’s life depended on it. 

Maybe it did.

“We did it,” he said in disbelief. “We did it.” His throat felt as though it were closing up, the tears and emotions he’d tried to fight off for years over taking him.

For the second time in twenty four hours, he felt his legs go out from underneath him as he sobbed into Vanya’s shirt. He’d done it. He’d actually stopped the apocalypse. 

One by one his siblings crouched down next to them, their arms wrapping around them until it was a group hug. Even Luther joined in, although he made sure to stay further away from Vanya, which Five appreciated.

It might’ve taken him forty years, but he’d finally done it. He’d saved his family, saved everyone that he possibly could. And he didn’t have to lose his sister in the process. If anything, it seemed like his family was closer than it had been in a long time.

It was going to be a lot of work, making sure the apocalypse never came, but he believed that they could do it. They were a family, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> This is obviously my first fic in The Umbrella Academy, and I just have to say that I adore this show! I love all of the siblings and can't wait for any word on season two!


End file.
